Comments on: ex·cessed (êk-sêst): My unwanted job hunt begins

By: maria maldonado

maria maldonado — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:49:12 +0000

Principal should not have the right to excess. This should come from another source. At my school, the principal mostly excess teachers over 40 and one person under 25. Also, for a small school with only two classes he kept two teachers in the same license but excess tg=he only guidacne couselor. He attempted to get rid of the most senior Afrian America Teacher in order to keep a 25 year old caucasion teacher.

By: Rudolph

Rudolph — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:10:40 +0000

I love when you go for an interview and the principal excoriates individualism and asks how you can be a team player and then excesses you because /s/he doesn’t like the teacher with greater seniority than you! What a system!

By: THSC

THSC — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:21:53 +0000

Re: VG’s comment: The Teacher Hiring Support Center (THSC) was formed in 2009 to provide services to teachers in excess. We took over services previously offered by The New Teacher Project’s Internal Hiring Support Center. Our website is http://thscnyc.org and we list events, resources and FAQs to help teachers find a position. We have tried to hit all the teachers who were in excess last year via a phone call to make sure they know about our services and will start contacting those newly excessed next week. Good luck, Ruben.

By: VG

VG — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:02:19 +0000

My school’s closing was announced in early Feb., and I correctly anticipated being excessed. What I’ve found most useful in job hunting so far:

– The old fashioned “who you know.” I’ve gotten school contacts through casual acquaintances, my place of worship, as well as through ed-related people; as with the lottery, ya nevah know.

– The DOE Teacher Hiring and Support organization, buried within the Dept. of Teacher Recruitment + Quality. The recruiters have been helpful.

– New Visions. If you can get through their online application, they will act sort of like a dating service vis-a-vis their schools.

I have also tried sending resumes cold, with no results so far. As for the Open Market Transfer system, I now consider it primarily a form of entertainment, as I have pretty good knowledge of vacancy listings not matching reality. But I still use it anyhow.

Do you have a portfolio together? Can you earnestly discuss your data-driven differentiated project-based authentically assessed backwardsly-planned units and lessons?

Also, as two teachers at my school commented to me today, younger is better these days. It’ll help that you’re new and relatively cheap. I have rarely seen a gray hair or wrinkle at these newish small schools, which are the only places I’ve gotten interviews so far.

The only thing permanent is change, as someone once quotably said.

By: experienced and talented teacher

experienced and talented teacher — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:57:35 +0000

thanks for sharing your story/experience, Ruben. The school where I work is excessing approximately 70 teachers because the chancellor decided to close it down! So we are all going through it together. I look forward to reading about your adventures (all in the perspective right?) as you search for your next teaching position. Something that I’ve been trying to keep in mind is the idea that new growth and change can only come from something ending. Can be scary, even sad. Toughest part for me is that I have not been able to give my pre-k students a sense of where they are headed for kindergarten and knowing that I won’t be able to remain connected to any of them as they head to the next grade. Trying to remember that wherever I end up working next year, even if it is as an ATR, I will get to make it the experience I want it to be, and I will be fortunate enough to be spending my days working and learning alongside children.